Trump “accidentally” revealed highly-classified info to Russians

The Washington Post just broke a huge story that Donald Trump revealed highly-classified information to the Russian ambassador and foreign minister last week, violating an agreement with a key US ally, and putting at risk the source of that information in the Middle East.

In a nutshell, Trump went “off script” and started bragging to the Russians about how great his intel is. He then started telling them about the details of the ISIS terror plot involving lithium batteries on laptops. This was information given to us by a foreign ally, under the condition we reveal it to no one — especially not to any foreign powers. We were not even permitted to tell other US allies about this information, let alone reveal to the Russians.

The information was so highly-classified that the Trump administration asked the Washington Post not to publish the details of what Trump told the Russians, and the Post complied. Think about that. The information is so sensitive that the Trump administration had to ask the press to censor itself, yet Trump himself handed the info to the Russians.

But that’s exactly what Trump did.

So what’s the impact of that?

1. That US ally may never want to share highly-classified information with us again, it’s just too risky. It was conjecture before that Trump might be so sloppy, so stupid, and so narcissistic that he’d share classified information with the wrong people. Now it’s fact.

2. This also means that other US allies will now worry, justifiably, that the US government will not keep their most highly classified secrets.

3. And this one is really scary. By telling the Russians the city in which we found out about the terror plot, Trump made it possibly for the Russians to find out who or how our ally got this information. Why does that matter? Because that same source could be providing key information about Russian involvement in Syria, where the US and Syria are at odds. This permits the Russians to now undercut that intelligence asset. Per the Post:

A former intelligence official who handled high-level intelligence on Russia said that given the clues Trump provided, “I don’t think that it would be that hard [for Russian spy services] to figure this out.”

I’d say this is unbelievable, but that word is getting old as it pertains to Donald Trump. And in any case, this is all too believable. Donald Trump is an interloper. He never wanted to be president, and never should have been elected president. He’s not ready for the job. He doesn’t have the experience or intellect to pull it off. Nor does he have the self-control.

And now Trump has jeopardized US national security far more than anything he accused Hillary Clinton of. Trump has literally leaked top secrets to the Russians. And while it would be nice to think that he’s simply an idiot, in the context of Trump trying to undermine the Russia investigation, this is exactly the kind of behavior you would expect from someone co-opted by a foreign adversary of the United States.

I can’t say for sure what’s motivating Trump, idiocy or treason, but either way, he shouldn’t be in that office.

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.